Welcome to my blog. I'm a husband, father, son who loves all things communications. I love listening what people really think and life and spirituality and how to connect they to God. My family means the world to me. I'm loved by God. Oh and this blog is my personal opinion and isn't necessarily the opinion of the church I serve in.

09/02/2010

10 Best Practice Tips For Churches Using Facebook (From The Best Of The Best)

I don't claim to be a guru at social media, but I'm constantly looking to learn what the best practices are as Facebook is an evolving communications channel for my church. I especially liked the advice the best blogger in the world gave churches about improving their social media presence. I learnt so much from him and used his advice to build Crossway's custom Facebook page and blogged how your church can do the same. I've also posted on how Saddleback trains its congregations to use social media (Really good stuff). I've also talked about what I wish I knew about social media before I started. There are nine very practical tips in that post if you are starting out or have recently started.

Another really great blog article that I saw this week is the best of the best 10 Facebook pages. There is some stunning work here. I'd highly recommend you take some time to soak it in. I have. Here are 10 best practice tips which I'll be looking at implementing:

1) Stick to one BIG call to action when they first visit your page. Get the user to like your page.

2) Incorporate video or images to stand out from the usual Facebook pages.

3) Think of creative ways to get people to visit your church.

4) Consider including a contact button so people can connect with you.

5) Keep your fans inside Facebook as much as possible.

6) If you are creating content, make it easy to spread and where possible make it fun! Your content may spread virally as a result.

7) Ask your fans to share something about themselves or get their opinion.and feedback.

8) Think of different ways to get your fans to interact with you.

9) Start some discussion streams to get people talking.

10) Incorporate Facebook stories into your page.

I'm sure these aren't the only best practice tips out there. Do you have any tips you want to share? Comment below and share your tips.

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6 Comments

Great advice, Steve!

At the tail end of the church comm video chat you did a couple weeks ago, you explained how you sit down with your social media person one day a week and plan/schedule the tweets/updates for the week. I really think that's great advice as well (probably worth a blog post of its own), because it enables you to be more consistent and also makes it more likely that you'll post a variety of types of tweets/updates.

One interesting way Fecebook could be used is through their ad feature as well. I've kind of been following it as they've ramped up lately, and it looks very useful for churches trying to reach the unchurched.

You can designate criteria for who will see your ad, so you could get pretty specific. For instance, you could only show ads to people in your town, not interested in Christianity (so you don't poach from other churches), but who are involved in groups or reading books that indicate they would be interested in learning more if you invited them to church.

You could show ads for free counseling sessions to anyone who just changed their status to "engaged," or who might indicate their spouse recently died. In this way you could use facebook to really engage with those around you.